ABOUT US

Steve Friess is a 2011-12 recipient of the prestigious Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan, where he will be studying the impact of the rapid expansion of Vegas-style gaming on Asia. He's a podcaster, author and Vegas-based freelance journalist who writes regularly for USA Today, The New York Times, Newsweek and many others. His column, "The Strip Sense" appears every Thursday in the Las Vegas Weekly. His books include "Gay Vegas" from Huntington Press and Knopf Mapguides' "Las Vegas."Friess co-hosts the weekly celebrity interview podcast The Strip Podcast "The Strip" with his husband, Miles Smith, the executive producer at KSNV-TV, Channel 3. For four years, Steve also co-hosted The Petcast with Las Vegas Sun education scribe Emily Richmond.

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Friday, April 24, 2009

[UPDATE #2: Perez apparently also says he wishes he had called Ms. Prejean a cunt, too. That'll surely win the gays some friends, huh?]

I've avoided commenting on the flap over Miss California, Carrie Prejean, who answered the vermin Perez Hilton's question at the Miss USA contest in Las Vegas last weekend about gay marriage with an inarticulate response that rambled about alleged free choice -- no gay Americans can choose fully recognized marriage -- before revealing her personal view that marriage is between a man and a woman. (There she is to the right, looking awfully wholesome.)

The whole thing was disconcerting because while I obviously don't agree with Prejean, I'm not sure that political opinions are how we ought to choose beauty queens. And the vermin Perez Hilton, who heretofore has done nothing whatsoever for gay rights and didn't donate a dime to fight against Proposition 8 last year, decided this was a great time to exploit the issue by recording a video blog in which he cackles about all the attention he's gettin over this and then calls Prejean a "dumb bitch." Next thing you know, he's on Larry King Live as though he's been in the thick of this issue all along when he actually represents the worst, the grossest, the least productive and most unpleasant side of what gay America has to offer.

Worse, though, is that using that kind of nasty language is the surest way to shut down any serious debate or discourse. It's not the verbage of a thinking person, one who cares about something greater than his own fame. Once the vermin Perez Hilton attacked this young woman, she became a right-wing hero and handed the Hannitys and Limbaughs of the world a clear-cut case of politically correct aggression with which to paint all gays who argue for marriage equality. She may be wrong on marriage equality, but that doesn't (necessarily) make her dumb or a bitch. Conversely, the vermin Perez Hilton may be right but that doesn't (even remotely) make him smart or honorable.

It really, really bothered me that Prejean may actually have lost her crown on this answer. (She came in second to Miss North Carolina, whose name nobody knows or cares thanks to the vermin Perez Hilton.) That's why I'm delighted that my friend and Miles' colleague Alicia Jacobs, an entertainment reporter for KVBC and one of the vermin Perez Hilton's co-judges, explained to Advocate.Com better why the way Prejean answered cost her in the competition.

I don't know if I totally buy what she says there, but it's a better-reasoned answer than what the vermin Perez Hilton has had to say. See? You can be smart and pretty. Or you can be hideous and stupid. (And, yes, I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder over this creep. Click here to see why.)

Alicia, who talks in that video about attending gay weddings, was also at ours, as you can see:

Mostly, I wish this thing would go away. The vermin Perez Hilton did more to firm up the resolve of straight-only-marriage proponents and provide them with a widely sympathetic figure around which to rally than anything in recent memory. Nicely done!

I hope the phrase "the vermin Perez Hilton" catches on if only for its accuracy. Perhaps an AP or New York Times style guide that requires its use. The guy, I mean, the vermin Perez Hilton has zero class.

Well put Steve and have to agree. Shameless self promotion that Perez Hilton is known for is all this has been. And it hurts the cause and those in support of the issue, to have to watch a neanderthal like Mr. Hilton pollute the argument.

Miss California had expressed her views and what she believes in and this should be taken sportingly by Perez Hilton. Instead he went overboard and created all this controversy. Read more here http://www.gossipcrunch.com/2009/04/miss-california-true-champ-perez-hilton-biggest-dumb-bitch/

I didn't see the whole show so I don't know what questions the other contestants got or how they answered. All I know was that the first reaction I had to the response was "Miss Teen South Carolina all over again!"

I don't agree with any of what that chick had to say but even if she gave a more politically correct response, she was still very inarticulate.

Why is a glorified bikini contest making the contestants answer questions like this anyway? I guess The Donald is basking in the free publicity.

The facts remain that Perez asked a perfectly logical question to someone representing the state of California,regardless of why he asked it was great that he did ask herand obviously you have a reason for your ax grinding but if people really wanted this story to vanish would they be blogging about itwasn't it really just another excuse for you to rip the man apart

A perfectly logical question?!? In a Miss USA pageant? C'mon, did we learn nothing from Miss South Carolina? A Miss USA pageant is the last place we should expect cogent political commentary. The question was a gotcha at best and an attempt to turn the spotlight on the 'judge' at worst.

The only good thing about it is that this whole tabloid drama attention away from this year's Miss South Carolina, my home state's Miss Arizona, who, when asked if the USA should have universal health care, said: "I think this is an issue of integrity regardless of which end of the political spectrum that I stand on. I've been raised in a family to know right from wrong, and politics, whether or not you fall in the middle, the left or the right, it's an issue of integrity, whatever your opinion is and I say that with the upmost conviction."

Freeclench: I think that was why I was uncomfortable with Alicia's answer, too. I obviously want to be able to marry. But I don't think we win any converts by making people who disagree with us feel intimidated or victimized.

Philip: It's not the PH asked this question that bothered me so much as that he attacked her so viciously afterward because he knew it would be good for him to have a feud like this. He didn't care much about its impact on the broader debate over marriage equality. That's how he rolls.

Shaun: Oh, was it Miss SC, not Miss NC? See how easy it is to forget amid all this?

I did not understand the praying for steve freiss comment? Anyway the whole thing was forgotton in a day. Miss USA pagent is not that big a deal. This chick is no anita bryant. The trumpmeister loves perez.

The sad thing is that these types of questions are asked at all in what is essentially a human heifer show.And Mario Perez is the last person who should be asking any question about same-gender marriage. (Considering, like, you know, he's been in a stable relationship for most of his life.)

Why is it in the 21st century the LGBTQXYZ community is not only incapable of taking out its trash, but feels the need to put it on a pedestal so that it can spew forth its waste for the rest of the world to see?

Gee, I dunno, pedegars. Steve's doing his best with posts like this, but I can't recall a time when a significant right-wing figure "too out its trash" either -- thinking of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Shlafly, Glenn Beck, etc. I'm amused that you don't see the parallel.

But Anon, when was the last time the left-wing did the same? You know, people like Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, Michael Moore, many of the Kos Kids, etc. Either way, not accurate analogies, left or right.

You see, we expect ideologues to say outrageous things, even when they claim to be average, everyday citizens. But we don't (or shouldn't) expect members of identity groups who portend to be the face of their group to act in the same way and get rewarded for it. That's why people still find professional sports players who drive drunk or drugged and slap around their wives or girlfriends to be a little less worthy of adulation than those who don't, even when they are winning on the field.

Mario Perez is like the obnoxious twink at a house party. He says outrageous things about people who can't (or can't be bothered to) defend themselves and everyone laughs and snickers a bit. Then he goes a bit farther, and a bit farther, and then he starts throwing around terms like "old farts" and "bitter queens" to some of the party guests and now it's personal. But it's also too late. He leaves the party before he gets thrown out and starts blabbing to anyone who will listen that the people at the party are just a bunch of squares and aging has-beens. He turns it around so that he's really "the cool one" and everyone else who doesn't like him is just jealous or not part of the in-crowd, et cetera. By this time, he's able to sucker in a few more people who have heard of his reputation as a witty party guest, but not his unpleasant dark side. And so the charm game begins anew.

Or to use the rodent analogy, Mario Perez was kind of cute when he was young, with those innocent eyes & all. But now he's all grown up into a big rat, chewing up favorite things and urinating and defecating everywhere. He's also got a nest built up where it's hard to get to and destroy. So he keeps doing what he was meant to do---and still, there are people who blame the people who left their things in the way and didn't put out a bunch of litter boxes so he'd have a natural place to relieve himself and didn't give him his favorite food and so forth. Mostly because he's not goring their ox and throws out a few canards that they latch on to and can convince themselves that because he says them, he's really one of us---when the reality he's in his own class and not a very respectable one.

Even this past week, the silence by the people who could put him out of his misery was deafening, outside of the blogosphere. One can only assume that they are all hoping that he will be their future witty party guest. If only someone had called him on his escapades a couple of years ago when he was plagiarizing copy from big media companies and making outrageous (and often false) claims about celebrities and getting legally served for same at his then real job at the coffee house, maybe he wouldn't be the embarrassment he is today and his apologists wouldn't have to waste time defending him and could instead defend things that really matter.

Now all we can really hope for is that he will tick off The Donahld to the point where he truly does become persona non grata and finally runs out the clock on his overtime fifteen minutes of fame.

THE STRIP FINALE

Below are links to the final episodes and last week of special editions of The Strip Podcast. Right-click on any of these to save and hear at your leisure. Otherwise, click on them and they should play. Enjoy, and thanks for the wonderful years.